Page 51 of Surge of Fire

Not wanting to alarm her, I’d lied and said I was safe too, but that I had a lot to talk to her about. Maybe I would tell her the truth. Maybe I wouldn’t. But I mostly just wanted to live to see her again.

I don’t know what to do. The town is a few hours back by foot. If I walk, I should make it by nightfall. But why would I go back? There’s a dragon in that direction and a very angry man I trapped in a freezer not so long ago. My only chance of escaping them is to go forward, but it’d probably take me two to three days to walk down the mountain from here. Unless I find another vehicle or can hitch a ride from someone else who’s fleeing. I can’t count on someone to help me out, and I don’t have the supplies to survive several days out here… at least I don’t think I do.

What the hell am I supposed to do?

I rub my arms, even though I’m not cold. I look around, trying to think. On this side of the mountain, I haven’t seen even a whisper of the deadly green dragon.Maybe I’m safe here for a little while, but do I go back up to danger or down and risk a different kind of danger?

Birds take flight above me, soaring through the sky, completely free of any problems like mine.If only I could fly, that would make this whole thing a lot easier.I freeze.I can fly… can’t I?

Opening the back of the truck with shaking hands, I dig through the scattered contents of the bag and find a granola bar and a bag of jerky. Wishing, belatedly, that I’d found a way to take some water at the gas station, I eat, standing up, thinking, even though my leg throbs when I do so. If I could fly, it would make things a hell of a lot easier. It’d take me no time at all to get to the bottom of the mountain and find another town to disappear in. There, I could call Aydan and Granger and make sure they’re still safe. I could find a way to get them down and get us all as far from the captain and the dragon as possible.

Yet… what if being in the sky makes it easier for the other dragon to find me? I stare up at the clouds, remembering birds disappearing within them.Maybe I can take cover there?

As I chew aggressively on the jerky, I consider that. If I turn back into a dragon and shoot right up into the sky, only coming out once I’m far enough away, the dragon probably won’t find me. It’d be much faster, safer too, I think, and then I could be in touch with Granger and Aydan before nightfall.

The more I mull over the idea, the more sure I am that this is the right thing to do. And yet, how do I… turn back into a dragon? This ability didn’t exactly come with an instruction guide.Do I have to throw myself off cliffs just to turn?Last time I’d turned when I was about to die, so that could be possible.

God, I hope not. Because being wrong about that decision would have dire consequences.

I finish my food, make sure my phone is tucked securely inside my back pocket, and pray it’ll stay in one piece if I shift. Then I try to become a dragon. Only, every time I think about becoming a dragon I have flashbacks to that green dragon and my skin grows cold and I feel sick.

Ugh, damn it!

Realizing that train of thought isn’t helping me, I instead try to think about skydiving. I don’t know where the thought comes from, but once it hits me, it’s all I can think about. I picture Granger, Aydan, and I after we’d turned eighteen. We’d saved all year to go skydiving, and it’d been worth every penny.

Sailing through the air that day with my best friends near me, I’d never felt freer. It was like for a moment my dad’s death wasn’t part of me. My mom’s sorrow wasn’t part of me. My own grief wasn’t consuming me. It was just me and the big world beneath me, the wind in my hair, and a feeling of never-ending freedom.

Being a dragon, for all its terror and confusion, was a little like that, only better. I’d owned the sky. I’d owned the world beneath my wings, and there was a freedom in that, which I was only just now realizing.

A shudder rolls through me. I focus on that feeling of my scales, my wings. Of the air beneath me. And I realize that the idea of me like that isn’t so strange any longer. Instead, it feels a little like a second skin I was always meant to wear.

There’s another shudder. A shiver down my spine. A chill and then a warmth. It’s hard to breathe. I fall to all fours like a cat about to hawk out a hairball, and a whimper slips from my lips. My body grows, changes, and expands, and then there I am… a red dragon in all its glory.

And I was right. Being a dragon doesn’t feel like stepping into someone else’s body. It feels like a body that’s always belonged to me. I stretch my big body like a reptile in the sun, and wiggle my wings, feeling alive and powerful.

I flap my wings, and although it’s a bit uneven at first, I get the hang of it. For a minute, I just hover above the trees and the road, feeling like the whole world is small in comparison to me, and then I remember that I’m supposed to be running and hiding. Two things that I hate to my core. Two things that feel terribly wrong, but I know are smart, even if they go against my instincts.

Shooting up into the sky, I rise above the clouds and have to force myself not to roar in triumph. The air feels rich and clean in a way air has never felt before. Flying is easy. It takes no thought. It’s like breathing. Like being alive.

Time passes, and I’m truly enjoying myself. I’m shocked that only a short time before, I was just a human.Or was I? Have I always been a dragon but I never knew it?That feels true to me, somehow, like my dragon counterpart was simply buried inside of me until it was time to be freed once more.

This is the time of dragons.The thought seems loud in my head. Different from my others. I frown and try again.I’m free. Nothing can touch me here.

It’s strange. It’s almost like the words are spoken instead of thought. Which is a weird notion. Probably a crazy one. But given the fact that I’m currently a dragon flying above the clouds, I’ll let myself be a little crazy.

My spine stiffens. Some unseen force disturbs the air. I look around me. There’s no reason to explain my feeling, and yet, I know something is wrong. I know I’m in danger.

I get these feelings sometimes. I’ve gotten them since I was a little kid. And so far, they’ve never been wrong.

Should I look beneath the clouds?The memory of the green dragon makes me hesitate.What if that’s what I’m sensing? What if he’s just feet below me, waiting to attack?

Instead of going down, I turn around, but only for the briefest moment before the dragon emerges above the cloud far in front of me. Every muscle in my body tenses. Except, this dragon is gray, not green.Does it matter?No, it doesn’t. If the last dragon was an asshole, chances are this one is too.

Turning back around as he closes in on me, I push myself harder, flying as fast as I can to escape him, but the beast is definitely tracking me, because he speeds up too. Glancing behind so often to check for him is slowing me down, but I can’t bring myself to focus just in front of me. I need to know where he is. I need to know if he gets too close.

And he is. He’s gaining on me.

I dive back under the clouds and try to turn and circle the mountain in an attempt to lose him. To my annoyance, he does the same, the distance between us getting smaller with each second that passes. I dive back up, then down, swerving and again trying to use the mountain to hide me, but he’s quick. Quicker than the green dragon had been.

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